The Cotton Club Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 85 reviews in total 48 out of 63 people found the following review useful: An absolute classic, the more times you watch it, the more you become mesmerised by it. from England 26 June 2000 The first time I saw this movie I loved the music and dancing and appreciated the setting. I found it strange and couldn't follow it properly. I watched it a second and third time, partly to see the dancing again, and listen to the music, and the plot completely grew on me. I absolutely love this movie. It is complex, and extremely accurate in its portrayal of the time when gangsters owned stars. If you love jazz music and know a little about its history, you will be enraptured by this movie. The acting is incredible, and highlights the subtle twists in the plot beautifully. The cinematography is done in a most expert fashion. Richard Gere and Gregory Hines are absolutely charming, and Diane Lane is perfect is Vera Cicero. Lonette McKee has one of the most beautiful voices you will ever hear, it is no wonder she received a Tony award.

Any viewer will be surprised by the guest appearances including Nicholas Cage, Bob Hoskins, Lawrence Fishburne, and on-screen and real-life brother of Gregory, Maurice Hines. Not only one of Coppola's best, but one of the best of all time. Was the above review useful to you? 39 out of 49 people found the following review useful: One of Francis Coppola's best and underrated films from Canada 19 July 2002 The Cotton Club is such a well-made movie, you have to wonder why so many critics and audiences ignored it when it was first released. Was it because of the murder case surrounding its production? Or did some people feel that a mixture of gangster films and Hollywood musicals didn't mix? Whatever the reason, The Cotton Club deserves to be watched again and again, not just for its music and dancing, but for the great performances, scenery, cars, costumes...and tommy-guns. The movie was nominated for two Oscars, but a third nomination should have gone to Bob Hoskins, for his brilliant performance as Owney Madden.

Despite his few film credits, James Remar is brilliant as Dutch Schultz and comes across as the sort of person you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. There are rumours the film may be re-released with scenes and music that were cut from the original version. If this is true, would the film finally become a hit? After all, Robert Evans, the film's producer, apparently told one reporter..."How can it miss? It's got gangsters, music and girls." Well said, Robert. Was the above review useful to you? 42 out of 63 people found the following review useful: OK Movie with too much going on and too messy from Houston 27 July 2005 I saw this movie when it first came out and I thought it was a mess. Now years later while I have the luxury of sitting in my house watching the various showings on cable, I like a better. Why because this movie is IMO 3 different movies going on at once. I Now I am able to concentrate on one aspect of the movie more then the whole. I will start with movie #1... The Cotton club, the nightclub where everything converges and what is the common denominator that brings ALL of the characters together.

It is almost set up like a Plantation in Mississippi. The white gangster own the place and the black people work there and have no say about anything that goes on. Black people were not even able to go to the club as a customer. All of the women who worked there were light skin almost passing for white. In the movie they do show how the set up was but the place was no as large as it was in the movie and on a side bar. Larry Fishburn who plays a numbers runner (the same role he played in a later movie, Hoodlum) shows interest in a brown skin singer performer in the club and her mother is very upset because she is the first "dark skin" woman working at the club. I liked that they added that in. I know this because my neighbor use to play with Louis Armstrong that the women in question is in fact Louis Amstrongs future wife. A little tidbit. I like the music and the performances which took place in the club. To me this was the most enjoying part of the movie. I feel a movie just about the Club without all the other foolishness it would be very interesting in the right hands. Which brings me to movie 2 THe gangsters or the white people.

Owey Madden was a thug and a very nasty man. In this movie Bob Hoskin (who was very good) and Fred Gwynn who I loved played like they were Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. In the right hands we would of seen the real Madden. Remember this is the man who kept black people out of his club. And did battle with other NY gangsters. Then we have Dutch Schultz. I wonder why we did not see more of Lucky Luciano because it was those 2 who were causing havoc in NYC during the 20's with Luciano winning. I think James Remer did the best portrayal of Schulz. Years later Tim Roth played him in the movie Hoodlum and he was good, but Remer was scarier. And according to all reports he was a psychopath. Then we have the George Raft(Dixie Dwyer) character played by Richard Gere If people are not familiar with the actor George Raft it was known he hung around the mob and had big time mob connections..who actually got him a job in movies. Richard Gere even mentions at one time that he use to be a dancer.

I am sure that is reference and acknowledgment of George Raft, who was a dancer before he went to Hollywood. George Raft was actually a pretty good actor. Gere even looks like him. I feel that is the real reason they cast him in this movie. Look at this movie as Gere playing Raft and not playing Dixie Dwyer and the part works. The last movie is the Harlem story. The Larry Fishburne character was a real person. He was lifetime criminal who spent most of his life in jail. He was not the voice of righteousness we see in the movie or the movie Hoodlum. What was interesting was the scene when he and the woman who was running the numbers racket in Harlem were offered a deal. I like they put that in the movie, that was true. The woman who was the real boss of the numbers racket came from the West Indies and started the whole thing on her own. A very tough cookie who went to jail because she would not give in to the mob. The mob was politically connected and they put her in jail for a long time. I like the the Hines bothers in the movie. They were feuding in real life and this movie was a way they starting talking again.

They actually showed that in the movie. ALso the Vonnetta McGee character was interesting. I am a very light skin black women who could pas for white. WhICH I WOULD NEVER DO. But I don't know about living back in the early part of the century. The scene when she and Sandman goes to the hotel and the clerk tries to deny them a room actually happened to me and a boyfriend of mine years ago. So that scene really hit me. I would of liked if they explored Harlem life more, but the movie had too much going on already. Nicholas Cage...nephew of Cappolla was good playing the violent brother of the Richard Gere character. I would like to have seen him in more parts like that instead of the garbage he has been wasting himself in the last few years. Diane Lane was the miscast. She was playing a real character too, but she came nowhere near the woman she was playing, Texas Guinon(I think that was her last name) A big boozy tough blonde. To me that is the major miscast of the movie. I like her though, but not in this movie.

This is a movie I feel has to be seen around 5 times to get the whole feeling of it. A good movie but just too messy and too much. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 24 people found the following review useful: All That Jazz from Dallas, Texas 26 August 2007 Part fictional and part non-fictional, this lavish two-hour Francis Ford Coppola film spotlights the Cotton Club, the legendary, real-life Harlem jazz nightclub that flourished in the Prohibition era of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Richard Gere plays Dixie Dwyer, a young musician who works for mobsters, in an effort to advance his career. Dwyer falls in love with Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), the girlfriend of gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar). The Dwyer character is based loosely on real-life jazz trumpet player Bix Beiderbecke. Throughout the film, various gangsters and bootleggers interact, sometimes violently, but much of the action centers around the Cotton Club, an establishment owned in real-life by Owney Madden, played in the film by actor Bob Hoskins.

Madden would bring in Black performers to entertain a Whites-only clientèle, a truly racist policy, and a major plot point in the film's story. The film's plot is somewhat muddled, the result of a less than stellar screenplay. And, as you would expect, the gangster characters are not terribly likable. But the film overcomes these script weaknesses with a captivating visual and musical style that is both tawdry and elegant. The corruption, the violence, and the implied sleaze are garish and tawdry to be sure. Yet, the Club's ambiance gushes with a certain elegance and glamour. It's a strange mix, but one that is entirely consistent with that era in U.S. history. The film gets points from me for its lush, period piece costumes and production design, and adroit lighting, as well as all those jazz numbers, both sultry and flashy. Gregory Hines together with brother Maurice Hines provide some snappy tap dancing, some of which is improvised. Interestingly, their grandmother really did perform at the Cotton Club during its heyday.

Also of interest in the film, viewers get to watch towering Fred Gwynne, who plays Frenchy, the oh-so-serious assistant to Owney Madden; the two of them engage in some interesting dialogue. Although the script's story and characters are less than ideal, I enjoyed the film a lot, mostly as a result of the tawdry and elegant visual style combined with the lavish jazz numbers. If you're interested in gangster movies or the Prohibition era of American history, this film is a must-see. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 25 people found the following review useful: I Liked It!! 8 October 2003 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Kind of a flat story with unsympathetic characters but it LOOKS fantastic. Harlem's Cotton Club of the 1920s is beautifully recreated and with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, etc. hanging out in there yet. Great music and dancing too. Check out the haunting "Creole Love Call". I had hoped that a fuller, uncensored version would have surfaced by now.... especially on dvd.

For instance, when Shultz kills Flynn in the dining room we see him stick a skewer in his neck. Yet 2 seconds later there is blood on the walls, dripping from the chandelier, and over just about everybody in the room. Sure looks like we missed something. This film could have been a lot better but for what it is, it's still worth a look. Bob Hoskins and a very menacing Fred Gwynne excel. Recommended. Was the above review useful to you? 12 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Companion to the pictoral history of The Cotton Club Author: el1sdf 8 July 2003 inspired by photographs of the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem, some shots appear exactly as they were (now in colour). I noticed Dutch Schultz's slumped pose when he is shot is exactly that of the police photograph, though he died several hours later (see William Burroughs "The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz"). The actors often play too broad (Diane Lane), and Richard Gere shows his lazy, grinning acting here too.

However, many notable smaller roles for Gregory Hines (and his brother), Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne and others who make it well worth watching. It is true that $40 million could have been used better, but when you consider both Bob Evans and Coppola's involvement it seems with hindsight that they were asking for trouble. The music deserves special credit, as do the tap sequences (which i gather were shortened and some cut - what a shame). Mostly Duke Ellington classics. As i've already suggested the look is a perfect recreation of the time, but sadly the plot is patchy, some dialogue weak and it has been said before - there is no chemistry between the romantic leads. 9/10 Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 34 people found the following review useful: The most underrated movie of all-time!! from Richmond, Ca 25 November 1999 Forget all the behind the scene's politics; Francis Ford Coppola's dazzlingly stylish, THE COTTON CLUB is certainly one of his best efforts. A movie that deserves it's place alongside other Coppola masterpieces such as, THE GODFATHER and APOCALYPSE NOW.

But the legacy of this film is very strange: The behind the scenes shenanigans is legendary, it was unjustly panned when it was first released, and box-office was slight; however, watching this film you can't help but wonder why? Everything from the performances to the look of the film is first-rate; with James Remar particularly good as Dutch Schultz, and the ending of this film is nicely reminiscent of THE GODFATHER. So if your looking for what might be considered a buried Coppola classic, check out THE COTTON CLUB. Was the above review useful to you? 5 out of 5 people found the following review useful: "That's how they live in this world. Maybe one day you'll wise up, sap" from Australia 8 May 2009 One gets the sense that 'The Cotton Club (1984)' will improve upon repeat viewings, once you've become accustomed to what director Francis Ford Coppola was attempting. After all, this is a gangster film from the man who brought us 'The Godfather (1972)' and its sequels  what else could we expect but another Corleone saga?

The film we're delivered is nothing of the sort, a testament to the director's constant willingness to take risks and experiment with new ideas. Indeed, rather than trying to emulate Coppola's former successes, 'The Cotton Club' could more accurately be described as a "gangster musical," a realisation that took me until the film's second half. Do those two genres even go together? Perhaps taking inspiration from Herbert Ross' 'Pennies from Heaven (1981)'  and the mini-series on which it was based  the film blends the ugly brutality and corruption of the Prohibition- era with the dazzling bright lights of the Cotton Club, Harlem's premiere night club. It is this deliberate but uneasy juxtaposition of reality and fantasy that fuels Coppola's vision, an ambitious undertaking without a dominant focus. The film's major storyline concerns Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere), a comparatively ordinary jazz musician who unexpectedly finds himself associating with organised crime boss "Dutch" Schultz (James Remar).

Dixie is interesting because, unlike your typical hero consumed by the allure of amoral riches, he always remains peripheral to the world of gangsters; he observes, with disapproval, its dishonesty and depravity, but rarely finds himself a part of it. In fact, the closest he ever comes to being a gangster is in Hollywood, where he shares the sort of film roles that made James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson famous. Coppola might have been offering a commentary on the inherently romanticised version of reality offered by the movies, but his "real world" of gangsters is scarcely less stylised. The seedy underbelly of organised crime is paradoxically depicted as taking place in the classiest locales in Harlem, where the crime bosses consume the best alcohol and mix with Hollywood's elite talent (Chaplin, Swanson and Cagney among the featured patrons). Proving further that Coppola wasn't attempting to replicate his Corleone saga, 'The Cotton Club' also features a rather extraneous subplot with Maurice and Gregory Hines as African-American tap-dancers vying for the "big-time" at the Cotton Club, where (in a bizarre discriminatory switch) only black performers are hired.

The regular cross-cutting between this story and Dixie Dwyer's doesn't quite work, and, in any case, the taut romance between Dwyer and tough-girl Vera (an absolutely gorgeous Diane Lane) is much more involving than that between Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines) and mixed-race dancer Lila (Lonette McKee). Among the film's impressive supporting performers are Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne as crime associates, Nicholas Cage as an overly-ambitious young thug, Laurence Fishburne as black crime boss Bumpy Rhodes, and James Remar, playing a sleazier and less identifiable version of Dutch Schultz to Dustin Hoffman in 'Billy Bathgate (1991).' The premiere gangster film of 1984 was Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America (1984),' but, despite being runner-up, nobody can accuse Coppola of playing it safe. Was the above review useful to you?

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: What A Mob...What A Show from Greenwich, CT United States 15 October 2008 Even Francis Ford Coppola couldn't sustain the height of movie-making he achieved in the 1970s. Raised too high by initial expectations, then dismissed too brusquely when the critics got to see it, "The Cotton Club" exists in a kind of neutral zone, a grand spectacle undone by sloppy scriptwriting and unappealing characters that nevertheless shows the master with some juice still in his cup. It's the story of Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere), a cornet player who one evening in 1928 almost accidentally saves the life of notorious mob boss Dutch Schultz (James Remar). Dutch, already a fan of his music, is appreciative of the extra service and brings Dwyer into his circle, which brings him into contact with Dutch's girl Vera (Diane Lane). "If I didn't like you, you'd be dead," is Dutch's way of expressing friendship. "It's nice to be liked," Dixie replies.

The film is centered around the nightclub of the title, a fashionable Harlem nightspot where blacks are welcome only on stage, entertaining the white customers. Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) runs things with an eye for keeping order, especially where the volatile Dutchman is concerned. Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines) just wants to dance into the arms of Lila Rose (Lonette McKee), who is torn between the chance for true love versus the chance to pass for white in a white man's world. The stacked cast even includes Nicolas Cage as Dixie's mad-dog gangster brother and Laurence Fishburne in one of his first signature tough-guy roles. "The white man has left me nothing but the underworld, and that is where I dance," he tells Sandman. "Where do you dance?" All this crammed into just over two hours leaves very little room to breathe, for a director who mastered movies which do exactly that.

But with little useful dialogue except of the expository kind, characters coming and going all the time, left-field plot twists (Dixie goes to Hollywood and becomes an instant star), and a central romance between Gere and Lane that is long on open-mouth kissing but short on story, you need spectacle to keep your attention. Remar makes the film worthwhile for me. His bug-eyed tantrums as Dutch are what stay with me when the film is over, yet he shows range, too, shy with Vera, henpecked with his wife, and amiable with Dixie in his guarded way. It's hard not to worry what will happen when he learns about Dixie and Vera, not only for the lovebirds but for Dutch, too. I only wish Remar could have played Dutch in the latter film set in the same milieu, "Billy Bathgate"; Dustin Hoffman is a great actor but was wrong for that part. Remar here fits into it like a cement overshoe. The film also boasts great music, including singing from McKee and tapping from Hines and his brother Maurice that raise the roof and recall the famous baptism scene in Coppola's first "Godfather".

Larry Marshall does a great Cab Calloway, conked locks whipping across his forehead. Nothing is really wrong with "Cotton Club". But what's right doesn't stay right for long, and the rest doesn't hold together. It's a fun show, so long as you don't mind being a bit confused when the curtain comes down. Was the above review useful to you? 4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: The Broadway version of 'The Godfather.' from United States 2 December 2009 The Cotton Club is a dazzling, complex film that attempts so much it would be almost impossible for nearly any director to pull it off. But Francis Ford Coppola is not any director, so The Cotton Club is not just any movie. Rather, it succeeds at practically all levels and is certainly a film worth coming back to again and again. Set in Harlem in the late 1920s, we are introduced to a group of Jazz Age-products, people who see themselves exactly as they are but all hope to go somewhere better.

Two story lines occupy the plot; we get a good-looking young musician Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) who gets involved in the mob after falling for one of the gangster's girlfriends (Diane Lane) and we get the story of a very talented black dancer (Gregory Hines) trying to prove his love to a half-black and half-white chorus girl who seems to struggle with her place in this more or less racist society. Almost every night, everyone gathers at The Cotton Club, one of the most famous clubs in the city and the blacks entertain while the whites drink and watch. But Coppola gives us a view from all angles so it doesn't feel as if we are missing anything important. One of the biggest achievements of this film is its staging of the dance sequences, which are to say the least quite exquisite. Filled with colorful costumes and some mind-boggling tap numbers, at times you may forget that this is also a gangster picture. Indeed, some scenes feel just like Coppola's The Godfather with its quick bursts of violence but also in its tone of sad, elegiac setting. People come and go and some regret the things they do, but the music lives on.

The acting is also very strong as Gere and Lane are quite wonderful in their first of three films together. Both were very good-looking and they do bring out the best in each other. Two supporting actors that really do steal the show are Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne as a mob boss and his head bodyguard. They share a tenacity and ferociousness in their dealings, but also have one really terrific scene involving Gwynne coming to see Hoskins after being kidnapped. A young Nicolas Cage also shows here he had incredible potential. This Broadway version of the gangster film so familiar in Hollywood refreshes both genres as we see the similarities between the two. Indeed, many of the participators in the entertainment were also involved in the mob and Coppola shows how the two lives intertwine and bring a lot of trouble to everyone. This may seem as a strange mixing of genres and story lines for some people, but it is well worth the two hours. It is funny, sad, violent, poetic but also enormously entertaining and isn't that what the movies are all about? Coppola seems to think so. Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 9: The Cotton Club (1984) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem. The story follows the people that visited the club, those that ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous. Director: Francis Ford Coppola (as Francis Coppola) Writers: a list of 49 titles created 06 Feb 2011 a list of 35 titles created 07 Jun 2011 a list of 35 titles created 25 Aug 2011 a list of 29 titles created 12 Oct 2011 a list of 30 titles created 15 Aug 2013 Title: The Cotton Club (1984) 6.5/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 6 nominations. See more awards » Videos Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days when gang warfare was going on. Director: Francis Ford Coppola 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X A sergeant must deal with his desires to save the lives of young soldiers being sent to Vietnam. Continuously denied the chance to teach the soldiers about his experiences, he settles for trying to help the son of an old army buddy. Director: Francis Ford Coppola The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept. Director: Francis Ford Coppola Hank and Frannie don't seem to be able to live together anymore. After a five-year relationship, lustful and dreamy Fanny leaves down-to-earth Hank on the anniversary of their relationship....

See full summary » Director: Francis Ford Coppola Having discovered that she is pregnant, Natalie Ravenna (Shirley Knight), a Long Island housewife panics and leaves home to see if she might just possibly have made something different out ... See full summary » Director: Francis Ford Coppola Peggy Sue faints at a high school reunion. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished school. Director: Francis Ford Coppola Post-teen virgin moves to New York City, falls for a cold-hearted beauty, then finds true love with a loyal lass. Director: Francis Ford Coppola The rivalry between two gangs, the poor greasers and the rich Socs, only heats up when one gang member kills a member of the other. Director: Francis Ford Coppola 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.9/10 X Bennie travels to Buenos Aires to find his long-missing older brother, a once-promising writer who is now a remnant of his former self. Bennie's discovery of his brother's near-finished play might hold the answer to understanding their shared past and renewing their bond.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered. Director: Francis Ford Coppola Directors: Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, and 1 more credit » Stars: Woody Allen, Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette An underdog lawyer takes on a fraudulent Insurance company. Director: Francis Ford Coppola Edit Storyline The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem. The story follows the people that visited the club, those that ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous. Written by Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com> Where crime lords rub elbows with the rich and famous! See more » Genres: 14 December 1984 (USA) See more » Also Known As: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| Dolby (35 mm prints) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Richard Sylbert claimed that he told Robert Evans not to hire Francis Ford Coppola because "he resents being in the commercial, narrative, Hollywood movie business".

Coppola claimed that he had letters from Sylbert that asked him to work on the film because Evans was crazy. The director also said that "Evans set the tone for the level of extravagance long before I got there". See more » Goofs When Dixie goes to ransom Frenchy there is a different amount of shaving cream on Mad Dog's face in every shot. See more » Quotes Sol Weinstein : Nobody calls me nothin'. Dixie : Not even your mother? Sol Weinstein : I didn't have a mother. They found me in a garbage pail. Referenced in Idlewild (2006) See more » Soundtracks Tenor Sax Alto: Lawrence Feldman Clarinet Solo and Alto Sax Break: Bob Wilber (Dallas, Texas) – See all my reviews Part fictional and part non-fictional, this lavish two-hour Francis Ford Coppola film spotlights the Cotton Club, the legendary, real-life Harlem jazz nightclub that flourished in the Prohibition era of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Richard Gere plays Dixie Dwyer, a young musician who works for mobsters, in an effort to advance his career.

Dwyer falls in love with Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), the girlfriend of gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar). The Dwyer character is based loosely on real-life jazz trumpet player Bix Beiderbecke. Throughout the film, various gangsters and bootleggers interact, sometimes violently, but much of the action centers around the Cotton Club, an establishment owned in real-life by Owney Madden, played in the film by actor Bob Hoskins. Madden would bring in Black performers to entertain a Whites-only clientèle, a truly racist policy, and a major plot point in the film's story. The film's plot is somewhat muddled, the result of a less than stellar screenplay. And, as you would expect, the gangster characters are not terribly likable. But the film overcomes these script weaknesses with a captivating visual and musical style that is both tawdry and elegant. The corruption, the violence, and the implied sleaze are garish and tawdry to be sure. Yet, the Club's ambiance gushes with a certain elegance and glamour. It's a strange mix, but one that is entirely consistent with that era in U.S. history.

The film gets points from me for its lush, period piece costumes and production design, and adroit lighting, as well as all those jazz numbers, both sultry and flashy. Gregory Hines together with brother Maurice Hines provide some snappy tap dancing, some of which is improvised. Interestingly, their grandmother really did perform at the Cotton Club during its heyday. Also of interest in the film, viewers get to watch towering Fred Gwynne, who plays Frenchy, the oh-so-serious assistant to Owney Madden; the two of them engage in some interesting dialogue. Although the script's story and characters are less than ideal, I enjoyed the film a lot, mostly as a result of the tawdry and elegant visual style combined with the lavish jazz numbers. If you're interested in gangster movies or the Prohibition era of American history, this film is a must-see. 22 of 24 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes The Cotton Club [1984] [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon, Lisa Jane Persky, Maurice Hines, Francis Ford Coppola, Barrie M. Osborne, Dyson Lovell, Fred Roos, Jim Haskins, Mario Puzo, William Kennedy: DVD & Blu-ray The Cotton Club [1984] [DVD] Â£10.17 & FREE UK Delivery on orders dispatched by Amazon over Â£20. Details Only 1 left in stock. This item can be delivered to your selected dispatch location in the United States. Details Sold by HalfpriceDVDS_FBA and Fulfilled by Amazon . Gift-wrap available. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a service Amazon offers sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon directly does the picking, packing, shipping and customer service on these items. Something Amazon hopes you'll especially enjoy: FBA items are eligible for and for Amazon Prime just as if they were Amazon items.

If you're a seller, you can increase your sales significantly by using Fulfilment by Amazon. We invite you to learn more about this programme . Note: This item is eligible for click and collect. Details Pick up your parcel at a time and place that suits you. Choose from over 13,000 locations across the UK Prime members get unlimited deliveries at no additional cost How to order to an Amazon Pickup Location? Find your preferred location and add it to your address book Dispatch to this address when you check out 9 new from Â£5.99 15 used from Â£2.95 See all buying options The Cotton Club [1984] [DVD] Â£10.17 & FREE UK Delivery on orders dispatched by Amazon over Â£20. Details Only 1 left in stock. Sold by HalfpriceDVDS_FBA and Fulfilled by Amazon . Gift-wrap available. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a service Amazon offers sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon directly does the picking, packing, shipping and customer service on these items.

Something Amazon hopes you'll especially enjoy: FBA items are eligible for and for Amazon Prime just as if they were Amazon items. If you're a seller, you can increase your sales significantly by using Fulfilment by Amazon. We invite you to learn more about this programme . Frequently Bought Together These items are dispatched from and sold by different sellers. Show details Buy the selected items together This item:The Cotton Club [1984] [DVD] by Richard Gere DVD Â£10.17 Only 1 left in stock. Sold by HalfpriceDVDS_FBA and sent from Amazon Fulfillment. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£20. Details The Cotton Club by John Barry Audio CD Â£7.35 Only 2 left in stock (more on the way). Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£20. Details What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? Language: English, French Subtitles: German, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.

) Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.77:1 DVD Release Date: 8 Sept. 2003 Run Time: 123 minutes Product Description Product Description Francis Ford Coppola's reconstruction of life in the famous 1920s Harlem jazz club stars Richard Gere stars as Dixie Dwyer, a trumpet player who saves a gangster's life and becomes unwittingly involved in the world of organised crime. Caught between the mobsters and the musicians, Dixie rubs shoulders with the likes of dancer Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), club owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins), and tough guy Frenchy Demange (Fred Gwynne), all the while having a dangerous affair with gangster's moll Vera Cicero (Diane Lane). The film merges the musical with the gangster film and captures the period with detailed sets, lavish costumes, and a rich musical score. From Amazon.co.uk The Cotton Club is routinely eclipsed by the controversies that surrounded its tumultuous production, but the film itself offers abundant pleasures that should not be overlooked.

If Apocalypse Now represents the triumph of director Francis Coppola's perilous ambition, then The Cotton Club represents the ungainly glory of uncontrolled genius, as brilliant as it is out of its depth. As an upscale homage to classic gangster films it's frequently astonishing, cramming a thick novel's worth of plot and characters into 129 minutes, gloriously serviced by impeccable production design, elegant cinematography, and stylistic flourishes that show Coppola at the top of his game. What The Cotton Club lacks is cohesion. Written by Coppola and novelist William Kennedy (then enjoying the peak of his critical acclaim), the film struggles to exceed the narrative scope of The Godfather, but its multiple early-'30s plotlines fail to form any strong connective tissue.

It's three (or four) movies in one, with cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own jazzy solos) drifting from one story to the next--loving a young, ambitious vamp (Diane Lane, with whom Gere shares precious little chemistry), enjoying the success of a hot-shot hoofer (Gregory Hines), and protecting his brazen brother (Coppola's then-newcomer nephew, Nicolas Cage) from the deadly temper of mob boss "Dutch" Schultz (James Remar). Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne also score big in grand supporting roles, but The Cotton Club is perhaps best appreciated for its meticulous recreation of Harlem's Cotton Club heyday, and the brilliant music (Ellington, Calloway, etc.) that brought rhythm to gangland's rat-a-tat-tat. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

The Cotton Club : Watch online now with Amazon Instant Video: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Lonette McKee, James Remar, Diane Lane, Allen Garfield, Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Grey, Fred Gwynne, Lisa Jane Persky, Gwen Verdon, Tom Waits, Julian Beck, Laurence Fishburne, Nico, Francis Ford Coppola: Amazon.co.uk By Spike Owen TOP 1000 REVIEWER on 27 April 2015 Format: DVD Far better than its iffy reputation suggests, The Cotton Club is guilty of being stuffed to the gills, but it also contains mighty fine film making that shows craft both behind and in front of the camera. Set in late 1920s Harlem, the pitch is an area of New York rife with swinging jazz, racism, crooks and gangsters. Prohibition and the depression fill the air just as the talkie movie bursts out of the silver screen. The Cotton Club of the title is the focal point for many of the key character's lives, so Francis Coppola, who stepped in at the eleventh hour of the troubled production, has many threads to juggle.

He drops the odd one, but never to the detriment of the verve and swagger of the pic. Violence comes and goes, song and dance often dazzles the eyes and ears, and a cast of hundreds induces that good old game of spot the stars - past, present and future. The narrative has strength via the observations of a major part of America in great transition, with the art design ops and tech crew beavers aiding him considerably via some superb period flavourings There is no getting away from the slightness of some character strands, the director and co choosing to insert another, all be it delightful, dance or song number to fill the void, but the core of the story remains strong throughout. The underworld always looms large, the seedy side of the era pulses away continuously, while the cast enjoy the dressage and frontage of a key time in America's history. Flaws for sure but made with skill and passion and it never bores. Bravo! 7.5/10 View All Photos (3) Movie Info There are those who insist that the backstage intrigues which occurred during the production of Cotton Club would make a better film than Cotton Club itself.

Essentially, this "dream" project of director Francis Ford Coppola was intended to reflect the passing parade of New York in the 1930s, using Harlem's famed Cotton Club nitery as a metaphor of the era. After innumerable in-progress script changes were made and countless post-production "improvements" were imposed, what emerged was a crazy quilt of varying styles, divergent acting techniques and stop-and-start plotlines. Occasionally, Cotton Club is well up to the standards established by Coppola in his earlier, more successful films. The central character, loosely based on George Raft and played by Richard Gere, is a jazz cornet player at the Cotton Club. Gere saves the life of gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar), who in gratitude takes Gere under his wing, engaging the young man's services as escort for Schultz's girl friend Diane Lane (guess where this leads?) Meanwhile, Gere's overambitious hoodlum brother Nicolas Cage (playing a character inspired by mobster Mad Dog Coll) kills two innocent children during a mob hit and is forced to go into hiding.

Cage holds gangster Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne) as a hostage, but Demarge's safety is negotiated by Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins), the mob owner of the Cotton Club (the touching friendship between Demarge and Madden is one of the few subplots to remain intact in the film's release version). Cage is killed, followed in death shortly afterward by Schultz, who is put "on the spot" by Lucky Luciano (Joe Dallesandro). Gere wins a Hollywood movie contract and heads off to Tinseltown with Diane Lane. These plot convolutions tend to diminish the importance of the black characters who work as Cotton Club entertainers. The intriguing fact that blacks were permitted to perform at the club but were denied access as patrons should have been given as much emphasis as Richard Gere's story; instead, we are left with tantalizingly brief snatches of a romance between Gregory Hines and Lonette McKee, and a few scattered musical numbers involving Hines, his brother Maurice, Charles "Honi" Coles, and a staggeringly good Cab Calloway imitator (Larry T. Marshall).

Cotton Club tends to leave the viewer feeling as though several vital ingredients are missing from the recipe, but there is still a lot left over to please the ear and eye. Rating: DVD Review: The Cotton Club [ Jump to: Image Review | Audio Review | Extras Review | Menu Review | Final Grades | Back To A Guide To Current DVD | ] The Movie: Francis Ford Coppola's 1984 period piece stars Richard Gere as cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere who played his own cornet). As the film opens, Dwyer saves the life of criminal Dutch Schultz, who, in turn, gives Dixie and his brother (Nicholas Cage) work. Dixie is introduced to Vera (Diane Lane) who is asked to accompany him singing while he plays the piano for a "special party" he's asked to play for. Unfortunately, Vera's the girlfriend of Dutch and Dixie begins to fall for her. Meanwhile, in another subplot, Sandman and Clay Williams (Gregory and Maurice Hines) have landed a job at the Cotton Club and Sandman (Gregory Hines) falls in love with Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee), but their relationship unfortunately has some obstacles.

Also part of the tale are the Cotton Club's owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and his assistant Frenchie Demange (Fred Gwynne), who are trying to keep the situation in the area civil. Eventually, Dixie goes out to Hollywood and becomes Owney's contact on the West Coast, but while he's gone, things go South, especially in regards to Dixie's brother. "Cotton Club" is a generally very good; some parts and pieces of it do not work as well as others, but there's so many things going on that something more engaging might be moments away. The romance between Gere and Lane is unfortunately one of the lesser elements of the picture - the two don't exactly have the best chemistry with one another. Although their separate performances aren't bad, their piece of the puzzle isn't quite as good as it should be. Supporting performances from both Hoskins and Gwyne are excellent, as are some other supporting roles. The way that the movie goes back and forth between characters and stories isn't always smooth, but most of the actors do a fine job at filling out their characters and making the most of the moments (well, except for Gere, who can't play tough very well).

Ford Coppola's sense of period is terrific, as the locations, clothes, cars, looks - every last detail is superbly accurate. The music is also wonderful. I don't know if I would consider it a classic, but it's often an entertaining and usually well-acted picture that's worth a look. The DVD The Directors Series - Francis Ford Coppola: THE COTTON CLUB (1984) The Directors Series Francis Ford Coppola: THE COTTON CLUB (1984) There is a club in downtown Los Angeles called the Cicada Club, and stepping inside its doors is like crossing the threshold into another era. Inside these walls, it’s as if time froze around 1944—the art deco architecture is pristine and polished, the live music is appropriately old-timey, and the clientele are impeccably dressed in tuxedos, zoot suits, and WWII army uniforms. The effect is like stepping into that infamous photograph at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980). The Cicada Club is a hidden diamond in downtown’s rough, and I would never have known it ever existed if my girlfriend hadn’t been dancing there for the past few years.

THE COTTON CLUB (1984), director Francis Ford Coppola’s follow-up to his twin 1983 S.E. Hinton adaptations THE OUTSIDERS and RUMBLE FISH, very much plays in the same world as the Cicada Club, so much so that I couldn’t help but wonder if the film directly inspired the Cicada’s creation. The film marks something of a return to form for Coppola, who was working from a script originally written by the creator of THE GODFATHER (1972), Mario Puzo. Finding its origins in the oral history of the real-life Harlem club of the same name, THE COTTON CLUB was shepherded by THE GODFATHER producer Robert Evans, who brought Coppola onboard, despite his financial troubles following ONE FROM THE HEART’s(1982) bombing at the box office. The film’s story dealt with organized crime and corruption in an opulent New York setting, which seemed like a perfect chance for Coppola to recapture some of that GODFATHER charm and success. THE COTTON CLUB is set in Jazz-era Harlem, 1928.

Dixie Dywer (Richard Gere) is a promising cornet soloist who catches the attention of a local crime lord, Dutch (James Remar) and his emotionally cold flapper moll, Vera Cicero (Diane Lane). As Dixie’s reputation as a talented musician grows, he soon finds himself the star of a hit Hollywood movie where he plays a ruthless mob boss. This makes Dutch furious, as he believes Dixie’s performance is a thinly-veiled parody of himself. When Dixie falls for Vera, Dutch declares open war on his former employee, and the Cotton Club is caught in the middle of the crossfire. The film boasts several great performances from a committed cast, albeit the characterizations tend to be a little bit on the cartoonish side. Gere is well-cast as the talented musician at the center of the story, bearing a pencil-thin mustache with suave confidence and righteous virtue. His dedication even went as far as learning to play the cornet at an advanced level. James Remar shaved back his hairline to resemble Al Capone in his portrayal of the crime boss Dutch. The veteran character actor gives his antagonist a crazy-eyed stare, with a ferocious, murderous unpredictability.

Caught between these two men is femme fatale Diane Lane, who is on her third consecutive Coppola collaboration. A woman firmly of her time, Diane’s Vera Cicero flashes the latest in flapper fashion as she uses her feminine wiles to advance her station in life, ultimately taking possession of a nightclub all her own. She’s ambitious, feisty, and street-smart, which makes her attractiveness undeniable. Filling out the cast are a variety of faces, many of which have been seen in previous Coppola films. There’s his nephew Nicolas Cage as Vincent “Mad Dog” Dwyer, Dixie’s ambitious brother whose impatience is his undoing. Laurence Fishburne makes his third Coppola appearance as Bumpy Rhodes, an enforcer for Harlem’s black elite. Tom Waits also pops up as a programmer and emcee for entertainment at the club. (I think there’s something interesting to observe in Coppola’s aesthetic with his continued inclusion of Lane, Fishburne, and Waits, but I’m not sure what that might be exactly). New to the Coppola talent fold are Gregory Hines, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, and Jennifer Grey.

Hines plays Sandman Williams, a gifted tap dancer and hopeless romantic, with McKee as the target of his affections. Hoskins plays Owney Madden, the owner of the Cotton Club with a firm authority over the feuding crimelords that frequent his establishment. Jennifer Grey, who you may recognize as Matthew Broderick’s vindictive sister from FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986), plays Cage’s young, unmannered wife. Stephen Goldblatt, Tony Scott’s Director of Photography for THE HUNGER (1983), finds himself in Coppola’s employ for THE COTTON CLUB, which sees a refreshing of talent behind the camera in many major departments. Shooting on 35mm film, Goldblatt creates a reserved aesthetic that could be read as more of a stylized take on THE GODFATHER’s visual look. The 1.85:1 frame draws from a brown, black, and red color palette that’s appropriately saturated to reflect the earth-tone patina of Richard Sylbert’s production design (who takes over for Coppola’s frequent Art Director Dean Tavoularis).

Coppola tells the story of THE COTTON CLUB with handheld and steadicam-based camera movements that complement the traditional photography, and he even throws in a few dutch angles for variety. John Barry, he of James Bond fame, comes aboard as THE COTTON CLUB’s musical maestro. Using a variety of string, woodwind and brass instruments, Barry’s score evokes the old Hollywood sound of The Jazz Age, which is also reflected in the many live musical performances that run the gamut from ragtime to swing. There’s a distinct musicality to the film, which lends a unique vigor and firm sense of place and time. Given its relative obscurity, THE COTTON CLUB is an unexpectedly strong work. It performed terribly at the box office upon release, but was nominated for two Oscars (One for Sybert’s production design, and the other for editors Robert Lovett and Barry Malkin). It channels Coppola’s strengths in the organized crime genre, and even has a few moments where it recalls the genius construction of THE GODFATHER, most notably in Dutch’s murder sequence towards the end.

This is further evidenced by Coppola’s collaboration with GODFATHER producer Robert Evans—although the two apparently had a falling out during production and Coppola banned Evans from set altogether. There isn’t much in the way of personal development as a filmmaker on Coppola’s end. Despite the inclusion of a few signature elements like double exposed frames, and an experimental sound design (one scene takes a diagetic tap-dancing performance and uses it as non-diagetic score in a parallel cross-cut scene occurring elsewhere), THE COTTON CLUB feels like it could have been made by a number of other filmmakers. THE GODFATHER influences signify the film as distinctly Coppola-esque, but the slightly cartoonish treatment of the characters and violence suggests instead the vision of a director influenced by Coppola. Like much of Coppola’s output in the 80’s and 90’s, it was made not because of a genuine ambition, but to reduce Coppola’s significant debt at the time. THE COTTON CLUB, while not having aged as well as some of his other work, is a strong and underrated film However, it pales in comparison to Coppola’s groundbreaking 70’s work, which was always going to be a tough act to follow.

But, if anyone can do it, it’s the man himself. By this point in his career, Coppola was still a young man, with plenty of time to recapture glory—if only he could dig himself out of the hole opened up by his indulgences. THE COTTON CLUB is currently available on standard definition DVD from MGM. Credits: Producers: Robert Evans, Fred Roos, Silvio Tabet Written by: Francis Ford Coppola, William Kennedy Director of Photography: Stephen Goldblatt Edited by; Robert Lovett, Barry Malkin Production Designer: Richard Sylbert COPPOLA'S 'COTTON CLUB' - NYTimes.com COPPOLA'S 'COTTON CLUB' By Published: December 14, 1984 ''THE COTTON CLUB'' may well be a tap-dancing ''Cleopatra'' for the 1980's, a period movie whose time and - apparently - script had not come when principal photography began in New York a couple of years ago.

It obviously cost a bundle but, considering the rate of inflation since the early 60's, ''The Cotton Club'' probably didn't cost as much as ''Cleopatra,'' best remembered now for some of the post-production comments made by its exhausted writer- director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in his war with 20th Century-Fox: ''They could cut it into banjo picks if they want.'' Just as ''Cleopatra'' was somewhat better than its harshest critics said, and considerably worse than its supporters thought, ''The Cotton Club'' is not a complete disaster, but it's not a whole lot of fun. It just runs on and on at considerable length, doing obligatory things, being photographically fancy but demonstrating no special character, style or excitement. There is an air about it of expensive desperation that no one, not even Francis Ford Coppola, could ease. It was Mr. Coppola whom the producer Robert Evans initially called in as a ''script doctor'' to work on Mr. Evans's original inspiration, James Haskins's pictorial history of Harlem's famous Cotton Club in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Mr.

Coppola stayed on not only to direct the film, but to create an entirely new story with William Kennedy and Mario Puzo and to write the screenplay with Mr. Kennedy. Like ''Cleopatra,'' the new movie calls attention to the defects of a system. ''The Cotton Club'' somehow found itself in production before anybody connected with it had any idea what kind of a movie it was supposed to be. Musicians may noodle, artists sketch and novelists fill notebooks with material they'll never use. When commercial movie makers attempt to do the same thing as they put their thoughts in order, heads roll and entire corporations totter. ''The Cotton Club,'' which opens today at Loew's State and other theaters, means to be a singing, dancing, melodramatic epic set in and around the old Cotton Club, which featured great black entertainers, plus a chorus line of light-skinned dancers described in ads as ''tall, tan, terrific,'' and which practiced its own brand of apartheid - a whites-only admissions policy.

The film's narrative mixes up real- life characters like Dutch Schultz, the mobster; Owney Madden, the owner of the Cotton Club who hobnobbed with gang leaders; Cab Calloway, and Gloria Swanson, with fictitious characters that suggest such people as George Raft, Lena Horne, Texas Guinan and Vincent (Mad Dog) Coll. Just what the film might have been is evident in its closing moments when, in an expressionistic montage, it cross-cuts between a big Cotton Club production number and what's happening to various characters outside the club. However, the movie, though busy throughout, has created so little interest that this potentially fantastic finale seems designed not to tie up loose ends but to pick up lint. The story - and there's more than enough of it - principally concerns the fortunes of a handsome young cornet player named Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere), who unwittingly becomes a favorite go-fer for Dutch Schultz (James Remar), who's intent on cutting himself into the Harlem numbers rackets.

Among his other duties, Dixie acts as Dutch's ''beard,'' that is, as the escort for Dutch's pretty, tough young mistress, Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), when Dutch's wife is around. Vera, who looks a lot like Tuesday Weld in ''Once Upon a Time in America'' and tries to behave like Texas Guinan, may love Dixie but her heart has been bought by Dutch, who has promised to set her up in her own nightclub. A parallel story concerns an ambitious young black tap-dancer, Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), and his love for a beautiful young showgirl, Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee), who is torn between her love for Sandman and her ability to ''pass'' for white and live in a world without facing discrimination. In the several years the film covers, Dixie breaks away from Dutch's control by becoming a big Hollywood movie star who plays gangster roles; his younger brother, Vinnie Dwyer (Nicolas Cage), becomes one of Dutch's hoods and eventually tries to cross Dutch as Dutch himself attempts to cross other mobsters in a gang war. Through it all, the Cotton Club prospers.

The best things in the film are its musical numbers, but though ''The Cotton Club'' is loaded with period music, it becomes overwhelmed by the general sloppiness of everything that's going on. Several first-rate moments are a terrific ''Crazy Rhythm'' tap number danced by Gregory Hines and his brother Maurice, an impromptu tap demonstration by Gregory Hines, Charles (Honi) Coles and others at a black dancers' hangout called the Hoofers Club, and a rendition of the great standard ''Am I Blue?'' seemingly sung by Miss Lane, accompanied by Mr. Gere on his cornet, which, the credits say, he plays himself. Though the rest of the material is less than great, the performances are all more than O.K., especially those by Mr. Gere, Mr. Hines, Miss Lane, Mr. Remar and Miss McKee. In a class by himself is Britain's Bob Hoskins (''The Long Good Friday''), who is especially effective as Owney Madden. Noteworthy in a supporting role is Julian Beck, who plays an especially nasty mob member.

Also playing supporting roles, but on and off so fast that their use seems to be profligate, are Gwen Verdon, Thelma Carpenter and Joe Dallesandro, the one-time Andy Warhol star, who has aged gracefully enough to stand out in his brief appearance as Charles ''Lucky'' Luciano. Vincent Canby Taps and Rackets THE COTTON CLUB, directed by Francis Coppola; screenplay by William Kennedy and Mr. Coppola; story by Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Coppola and Mario Puzo; director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt; edited by Barry Malkin and Robert Q. Lovett; music by John Barry; produced by Robert Evans; released by the Orion Pictures Corporation. At Loews State, Broadway and 45th Street; Orpheum, 86th Street and Third Avenue; 34th Street Showplace, at Second Avenue, and other theaters. Running time: 121 minutes. This film is rated R. Dixie Dwyer . . . . . Richard Gere

Question: What is the title of the 1984 film in which Bob Hoskins plays the owner of a club where Richard Gere plays the cornet?
Answer: The Cotton Club